Alrik came up to them. “Now's not the time for that.” She glared at Alrik as he whisked Telal to the center of the dais. He stood in front of his great throne and looked out over the throng of royalty. “My brother is back, ladies and gentleman, and wishes to open the rift to the Atal Warriors.”

Gasps of shock echoed throughout the great hall. Alrik held out his hand and the voices quieted. “According to him he didn't betray us. What say you to that?”

The response came immediately. Everyone stood, screaming and shouting, their fists coming down hard on the tables and rattling their golden plates. Telal watched the sea of red-faced royals with a dispassionate gaze. Alrik turned back to him with hatred blazing in his eyes.

“And you didn't come alone.”

Telal tensed, his mind searched to figure out what he meant, or if this was a trap. Had Kearnyn followed him after all...or did...no that was impossible?

Satisfaction filled Alrik's demented gaze. “Bring her in!” he ordered.

Telal's gut clenched. No way. She couldn't be here.

The bars to the door opened and Lily was shoved face first inside. She slipped on the hay-covered floor and fell. At the last second, she turned her head so only her cheek slammed into the ground. She groaned as hot, flaring pain throbbed in her jaw. Footsteps came up behind her and before she could try to scramble away, someone cut the ropes at her wrists. The steps retreated then the metal barred door crashed closed behind her.

Lily slowly turned around to a sitting position, her hand rubbing weakly at her jaw which felt broken. She knew it probably wasn't, but damn if it didn't feel that way. She looked around to survey her cage. Next to her cage, which was only about the size of a bathroom, no more than six foot by six, were dozens of more cages filled with people just like her. Well, she thought, not just like her. Many were multicolored demons with strange or unique skin and hair colors, both men and women. Most only gave her a passing, pitying glance then went back to talking in demonic to their cell mates.

Lily looked around her cell and saw a bucket. The smell of it quickly burned her nose with the putrid odor of bodily waste. She gagged, bile rising hot and thick in her throat and this time she couldn't hold it back. Quickly scurrying to the opposite corner of the cell she retched, part potion, part dinner she'd eaten last night. When she finished, she grimaced. Burning liquid pooled in her eyes but she squeezed them shut to keep any tears from falling. She rarely acted foolish but now she had to agree with Telal—she'd thoroughly fucked up.

There wasn't a bed, hell, not even a pallet of some kind. Just a bunch of dirty hay strewn about the dirty floor. Lily winced, her arms burning from being dragged about by the arms. She crawled to the back of the cage and leaned against it, her head falling on her knees. She wanted to cry but couldn't do it here. Not out of some female rage against tears but because others were around and she'd be even more embarrassed. For the first time in her life, she truly felt like a fool.

She wiped the foul taste off her lips with her sleeve. A faint tremble began in her fingers, then spread to her hands. She wished like hell she had her special juice from back at the apartment. She should have drunk some before she left. Her stomach rolled with nausea, the first symptom of withdrawal from it.

A hissing sound had her head jerking to the cage next to her. For the first time she noticed the person inside. An older woman, so skinny bones protruded from her knobby wrists, fingers, and shoulders. Her clothes hung loosely from her body as if she'd once filled them out but had loss significant weight. Her hair was a matted, dirty mess filled with knots and clumps from never seeing a brush. Her head jerked constantly as if she couldn't keep it still.

“Did you say something?” Lily asked hesitantly.

The woman suddenly crawled to the bars separating them by moving on her knees and fists like a monkey. Lily flinched as the woman's pale bony hands curled around the bars. Her hands were black with filth, but it was her face she was more interested in. It was her face she couldn't see. Dirt covered it, and what the dirt didn't cover, her matted hair did.

“You...you are new,” the woman hissed softly.

Lily's heart started to race with fear. The woman looked like a wild animal. Lily had the urge to go to the opposite corner of the cell, to get as far away from the woman as she could. But her choice lies between being close to the woman or the rotten excrement bucket. She chose the woman.

“Yes, I am.”

“What-what did you do? Steal?” She laughed, the soft sound hoarse, wheezing.

“No, I didn't steal anything.”

Suddenly the woman's head stopped shaking. Her grip on the bars tightened. “You...you don't speak in Demonic.”

Lily's brow raised. She'd assumed the woman knew she was speaking in English since she did as well. “Yes, of course. I don't know Demonic.”

The woman jerked as if she'd been hit, then frantically started shoving chunks of hair out of her face. Her eyes, glaringly white against the dirt on her face, shone wide and frantic as she stared at her. Her eyes raced over Lily’s face and hair.

“You, you are not demon.”

“No, I'm not.” She paused as she thought about it. “And neither are you.”

The woman didn't respond, but her eyes widened on hers with an edge of madness to them. “No one here is not a demon. No one.” She shook her head several times to prove her point.

She was right, but Lily didn't know what to say, so she shrugged. “That's probably true.”

The woman shook her head like she had bugs crawling in her hair and she was trying to get them out. “No, you don't understand. I am the only one who isn't a demon. Me. Who are you?”

Lily wrapped her arms around herself. There was a definite chill in the air, but the woman's word made her even colder. “My name's Lily.” It probably wouldn't matter but she withheld her last name from the deranged woman.

“Lily...” the woman said softly. She repositioned herself, plastering herself against the bars until her bony knees squeezed through the tight metal bars and her face squished through. “That name is familiar. So familiar.”

The hair on the back of Lily's neck stuck straight up. Finally having enough of the crazy woman, she scooted backwards, away from the partition between them. When she had some distance between them, she felt a little bit safer, no matter how crazy that might be.

“What...what's your name?” Lily asked, mostly out of politeness.

The woman's lips parted and a faraway look came to her glossy eyes as she lifted her head skyward. There was no sky to see here, only a black metal roof. “My name...” Her head slowly drifted side to side, almost as if she were humming a tune in her head or dancing a waltz in a past time. “My name is Mary. No one, no one calls me that. No one.” The faraway look disappeared in an instant, a candle snuffed out. She shook her head again and again as she said the choked words, her hands releasing then squeezing the bars over and again.

This is what I'll become if I stay here. The thought sent dread down her spine.

“If you aren't a demon then what are you?” The rift had been closed for so long; this woman must have been captured before the Great War. A thousand year sentence was an awful long time to be imprisoned. Lily could easily picture herself being worse off than this woman was.

“Succubus.”

Lily sucked in a harsh breath. Her eyes screwed up in amazement, shock. “So am I.”

The woman jerked again and started rocking, using her grip on the bars as leverage. She looked so much like an autistic child seeking comfort. Lily's defenses finally came down, and she crawled across the dirty floor to the woman, wanting to comfort, hug her, something. The woman stopped rocking as she neared, her eyes, half hidden by hair, peered at her shrewdly.